


In That One Moment

by AZGirl



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Angst, Episode: s02e02 Bad Code, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-05
Updated: 2012-10-05
Packaged: 2017-11-15 16:56:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/529493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AZGirl/pseuds/AZGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In just that one moment a thousand thoughts fly through my head about debts and who really owes them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In That One Moment

**ooooooo**

" _I owe you a debt."_

Everything seems to stop for a moment.

Frozen in time except for my racing mind; thousands of thoughts fly through in that one moment.

Finch thinks he owes me a debt?

No. _I_ owe _him_.

Even after everything I went through to get him back, I feel like _I'm_ the one who still owes a debt; one that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to repay. I've lost count of the number of times he's saved my life. But, more importantly, he's saved my mind and perhaps even my soul.

Before Harold found me, I was well on my way to losing both and was trapped in a dark, downward spiral of negative thoughts and emotions. Both my mind and my soul had been overwhelmed by Jessica's death and the surrounding events; it had become impossible for me to function, to live life beyond the thought of the next bottle of alcohol. I had needed the alcohol just so I could quiet a mind slowly going insane; a mind slowly trying to convince me to undertake a more permanent solution to my suffering.

Alcohol had kept those thoughts partially at bay, had kept the emotions from completely taking over and destroying me, but by the time I'd met the eccentric computer genius, its effects had diminished. The negative thoughts that had been my constant companions for so long were beginning to succeed in convincing me it would be easier in the abyss, in the hell that I most assuredly deserved because of everything I'd done and the one thing I'd failed to do.

Harold, and by extension The Machine, have given me a purpose, a way back from the edge, a way to quiet those negative thoughts and emotions that I know will never truly go away. There is no way to repay a debt like that.

Going after my friend – and yes, he's my friend despite our mutual efforts to keep each other at arms' length. Going after Harold when Root took him barely scratches the surface of even trying to repay what I owe him.

In just that one moment, all that and more enters my mind after Finch says those words, says _he_ owes _me_ a debt.

I'm about to reply, about to try to explain a fraction of what had just gone through my thoughts when my phone rings.

The moment has passed, but as I retrieve my cell from my pocket and answer it, I vow to myself to stay on the path of righteousness that he and The Machine have offered me.

Because, if anyone owes a debt, it's me.

**ooooooo**

_The end._

**ooooooo**

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully it wasn’t too obvious that I wrote and posted this very quickly and without a beta.
> 
> Cross-posted on fanfiction.net on October 5, 2012.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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